


Operation: Birthday

by baridalive



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Birthday, Boys In Love, Family Issues, Feelings, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Soft Boys, god bless taeil, happy birthday mark!, hyuck is In Fucking Love, mentions of an anxiety attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 22:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20071909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baridalive/pseuds/baridalive
Summary: Donghyuck is a man with a plan.Or, he was until his plan goes up in flames because of a phone call and he finds himself driving to his best friend/long time crush's house just to make sure Mark is alright.Alternately: it's Mark's birthday, Donghyuck is stupidly in love, and everything is more okay when they have each other





	Operation: Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday mark lee! you are such an inspiration to so many and are such a pure and beautiful human being! keep working hard but make sure to take care of yourself too! happy 21st little lion!
> 
> (this goes out to raisa and rj and shéa and nik for reading this over,,, i love you all so much)
> 
> ((TW: this has mentions of an anxiety attack!!))

**NO JAM JENO** **| 12:42PM  
** hycuk  
*hyuck  
we have a problem

**HALFSUN | 12:44PM  
** what do u need  
im at work rn

**NO JAM JENO | 12:45PM  
**it’s abt mark

**HALFSUN | 12:45PM  
**hold on

“Jeno?” Donghyuck whispers into the receiver. “What’s going on with Mark?” He’s cowering behind the service desk counter, praying that Yangyang can hold down the fort for five minutes while he figures out what is going on with his best friend.

“_He didn’t show up to work today,_” Jeno explains. There’s a screech in the background followed by a series of muffled giggles and Donghyuck figures that Jeno is already at the pool where he works as a lifeguard along with Mark during the summers.

“It’s his birthday, he probably just took it off.” Donghyuck frowns.

“_That doesn’t sound like Mark now, does it?_” Jeno retorts. “_And if he’s not at work, that means Operation: Birthday isn’t a go._”

At the sound of that, Donghyuck jerks in surprise and smacks his head on the underside of the counter in the process. They’ve been planning Operation: Birthday for upwards of a month, and Mark not being at work today means that all of that work will have been for nothing. 

“Did he even call in?” Donghyuck asks, wincing as he gingerly rubs the top of his head.

“_No, he didn’t, and that’s almost the most concerning part._”

“I just texted him a happy birthday this morning and he didn’t respond…” Donghyuck’s imagination jumps to the worst possibilities and he has to shake his head to knock them away. Mark is absolutely fully capable, as their friend group always teased, and Donghyuck is sure that he’s alright. “I’m going to go check on him.”

“_Dude aren’t you at work right now? Which means you’re at your mom’s this week and you’re an hour away from us._” Jeno sounds a little too concerned for Donghyuck’s taste. “_Are you sure?_”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Donghyuck huffs back. “I’ll drive down after my shift. It’s not like anything exciting goes on up here without you guys anyway.”

“_Okay, let us know what’s going on with—hey! No running on the pool deck kids!_” There’s some muted shouting and Donghyuck stifles a giggle at it from his side of the line. He had the opportunity to spend the whole summer at his dad’s place and work as a lifeguard as well, but he chose to switch between his parent’s houses and just work at his mom’s convenience store every other week. 

“I’ll text you when—” Donghyuck starts, but an ominous shadow looms over the counter and he knows he’s screwed.

“You won’t be texting anyone, young man.” It’s Taeil, the manager of the store when his mom isn’t working. “You’re on shift right now.”

“_I’ll leave you to it,_” Jeno snorts before unceremoniously hanging up. Donghyuck groans and stuffs his phone back into his pocket before attempting to stand, which he only manages after whacking his head on the bottom of the counter again. 

“Hey, Taeil-hyung,” he starts nonchalantly, but the redness burning at the tips of his ears is giving him away and they both know it. “What brings you to these parts of this almighty store?”

“Nice try, kiddo. Get back to work before I tell your mother.” Taeil looks like the least threatening man ever with his short stature and kind features, but when he pulls the ‘so help me I will call your mother’ card, Donghyuck wants to cower behind the counter again.

“No, no, I was just picking up a call from Jeno because something happened with Mark.” Donghyuck scrambles to give an explanation because the last thing he needs today is his mother getting on his ass and then not letting him drive down to see Mark. 

“Mark? The cute swimmer friend of yours who you have a crush on?” Taeil teases and Donghyuck’s whole face turns as red as the uniform shirt he is wearing. 

“I don’t have a crush on him,” he weakly protests, but Taeil just raises an eyebrow and Donghyuck sighs. “Okay so what if I have a stupid crush on him? It’s not important right now.”

“What happened with Mark?” Taeil asks, waving a hand to beckon Donghyuck out from behind the service counter. Donghyuck stuffs his hands into his pockets and hunches his shoulders because he can feel Yangyang’s eyes on him from the other side of the store where he’s stocking shelves. He’s going to get _ so much shit _ for this later.

“It’s his birthday and he didn’t show up to work.” Donghyuck kicks at the ground, not meeting Taeil’s eyes because the reason sounds so flimsy when he says it like that.

“Did he just take a day off?”

“You don’t get it! Mark Lee doesn’t just _ take days off!_” Donghyuck wrinkles his nose in frustration, running a hand through his hair. “That boy doesn’t have the word ‘relax’ in his vocabulary, and he hasn’t been replying to my texts and—”

“Okay, Hyuck.” Taeil’s voice is soft and reassuring as he places his hands on the younger’s shoulders. “You’re clearly worked up about this.”

Donghyuck resists the urge to snort, instead just letting his hands fall out of his pockets and his shoulders slump. Mark is the type of person to work until he drops simply because he doesn’t know his own limits, and Donghyuck tends to cover up his constant worry for his best friend by teasing him about his work ethic.

“I’m gonna go drive down and see him after my shift,” Donghyuck murmurs, shrinking back from Taeil’s touch. “Just don’t call my mom about this.”

“Your shift ends in seven hours, Donghyuck,” Taeil points out. “You’re just going to mope around and not get any work done.”

Donghyuck curses himself for agreeing to take the long shift today because Operation: Birthday wasn’t supposed to start until after he got off anyway.

“Get out of here,” Taeil says suddenly and Donghyuck squints at him, wondering if he heard him correctly. “You’re not going to be of any help around here if you’re going to be this upset. Go see Mark and make sure he’s okay, and tell him that I say hi.”

“I swear you like Mark more than you like me!” Donghyuck whines, but the grin curling at the edges of his lips gives him away. “Thanks Taeil-hyung!”

“Don’t forget to clock out!” Taeil calls after him but Donghyuck is already tearing across the store to the team room door. He flings it open and, after clocking out, snatches his keys and wallet from his cubby and is out the employee’s only door in sixty seconds flat.

He has a fleeting thought that Mark may be able to beat him in the pool, but Donghyuck has been running for nearly as long as he’s known Mark and he’s never been able to beat him in a race on land. This little fact has resulted in Mark constantly having to buy Donghyuck ice cream because he is convinced that he’ll be able to beat him in a race some day, but it hasn’t happened yet and Donghyuck keeps reaping the benefits.

Operation: Birthday may have been a failure, but Donghyuck is determined to make Operation: What the fuck Is Going on—Operation: WIG for short—a success. He’s thankful that his mom let him take the nice car today, and by nice he means the one with a working air conditioner, because the hour-long drive on such a stiflingly hot day would be almost insufferable otherwise.

However, Donghyuck thinks as he pulls out of the store parking lot and puts on his Ray Bans that Mark had saved up to get him for his own birthday just a couple months ago, no matter how insufferable the weather may be, he’s always going to make the drive for Mark. 

Or for any of his friends. 

But mostly for Mark.

He sighs, long and deep, resisting the urge to bang his forehead on the steering wheel because he is merging onto the highway and, contrary to what his friends might say, doesn’t actually have a death wish. 

Donghyuck’s fingers twitch to grab his phone and call Mark, mostly to make sure that he’s actually at home and Donghyuck isn’t making this drive for nothing. He draws his hand back at the last moment, though, and can’t pinpoint exactly why.

Maybe it’s because he still wants to surprise Mark on his birthday, maybe it’s because he’s scared that Mark really isn’t okay, or maybe it’s just because Donghyuck is a fucking coward who is too scared to talk to his best-friend-turned-crush just beacuse maybe Mark is avoiding him.

Again, he debates whacking his forehead against the steering wheel, but the dull ache on the top of his head from where he hit it on the underside of the service counter _ twice _ stops him.

Instead, he just lets out a groan and slumps in his seat a bit, anxious in no less than twelve different ways for something that he can’t even put into words.

If Donghyuck speeds just the slightest bit on his way to Mark’s house, no one has to know.

He hopes that his dad isn’t home because he would immediately recognize the car rolling carefully down the street and pulling into the driveway just next to his. The icing on top would be to see his son hopping out and rushing up to his best friend’s front door with a tub of Mark’s favorite watermelon sherbert bought last minute at the gas station just outside of the neighborhood. 

Donghyuck rings the doorbell, shifting nervously as condensation from the outside of the sherbert container runs down his forearm. No one answers. He rings again, but there’s still no answer.

Maybe he should have called.

He backs up from the porch and squints up at the window just above the garage, the one that leads to Mark’s room, but the blinds are drawn and there’s no sign of life.

It takes only a second of deliberation before Donghyuck is picking out the spare key to Mark’s house from his key ring and unlocking the front door to step inside to the blessedly air conditioned house.

It’s the middle of the afternoon, but the house is completely dark on the inside, and there’s no purse sitting by the fruit bowl in the kitchen, meaning that Mark’s mother must be at work right now, which just leaves Donghyuck with the question of where the hell is Mark himself?

Donghyuck toes off his shoes at the entrance, closing the door behind him so he can get the rapidly melting sherbert into the freezer before it gets everywhere. He pads quietly into the kitchen and almost trips over something on the floor, nearly causing him to drop the sherbert.

He flicks on the light and sees that it’s Mark’s swim bag lying there on the hardwood floor, and Donghyuck is immediately worried because Mark is tidy to the point of being annoying sometimes, and it isn’t anything like him to leave his things lying around like this. 

The snort he has been preparing gets stuck in his throat when he sees Mark’s wallet and phone sitting on the kitchen counter; the screen lights up to reveal fourteen missed alarms that have long since stopped going off, and when Donghyuck digs past all of them to turn them off he smiles a little bit.

Mark’s lock screen is the picture that Jeno secretly took of him and Donghyuck dancing around the bonfire at the beach that they had made for Donghyuck’s birthday just a few months earlier in the summer. Their arms are linked over the flames and both of their faces are frozen, lit up with happiness and laughter in the low light of the fire. It’s one of the best photos of them, in Donghyuck’s not-so-humble opinion, but he would rather die than admit that aloud.

He scrolls down the screen to see eight missed calls from Jeno, three from Jaemin, and dozens of missed texts from an assortment of people including Donghyuck himself, but there’s one set in particular that catches his eye.

It’s from Mark’s swim coach.

**Coach Suh | 6:34AM  
** Let me know if you need anything today, Mark  
Rest up so this doesn’t happen again  
We all worry about you

It’s unread, sitting there on Mark’s phone screen ominously, and Donghyuck feels his stomach churn. He nearly tosses the sherbert in the freezer before rushing up to Mark’s room on the second story, Mark’s phone still clutched in his hand.

The door is only halfway closed and Donghyuck can see a sliver of light spreading across the room from where the blinds on his window don’t quite fit all the way across. He gently pushes the door so he can slip inside and can’t decide if he wants to laugh or cry.

Mark is laying on top of the covers on his bed, completely asleep with his hand pressed on the snooze button of his alarm clock, preventing it from going off. His long limbs are thrown across the bed without any order and Donghyuck doesn’t know how he even fell asleep in such a weird position. He isn’t wearing a shirt and his joggers are slung low enough over his hips that Donghyuck can see that he’s still wearing his swimsuit underneath.

It’s so unlike him to be this careless and he feels worry bubble up in his stomach once more because Mark’s glasses are sitting on the floor instead of inside the open case on his nightstand. He hates it, _ god, _ he hates every bit of it.

He slips both his phone and Mark’s into his back pocket before walking closer and kneeling by the side of the bed, getting a better look at Mark’s face smushed into his pillow. He’s fast asleep, breathing deeply out of the corner of his mouth, but the dark circles under his eyes are painfully visible even in the dimness of the bedroom.

“Mark?” Donghyuck asks softly, placing a hand on his arm. “Hey Mark, wake up bud.”

It takes a moment of gentle shaking and even more careful coaxing until he finally stirs, yawning wide and blinking his eyes owlishly as he adjusts to his surroundings.

“Hyuck-ah?” Mark’s voice is quiet and low, catching as he speaks. “I thought you were at your mom’s this week.”

“I am, but I’m here now,” Donghyuck whispers, squeezing his arm lightly. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, why?” Mark is quick to answer, almost too quick, and that’s when Donghyuck knows for sure that something is wrong. 

“Mark, come on,” Donghyuck sighs, resting his chin in the crook of Mark’s elbow. “What’s going on today? You never miss work, and you would rather walk on hot coals than leave your glasses on the ground, yet here we are.”

Mark exhales, long and slow, before nodding. He nudges his arm and Donghyuck removes his chin so Mark can push himself up into a sitting position, swinging his legs off the side of his bed far enough that they almost hit Donghyuck in the shoulder.

“Lemme shower and I’ll tell you what happened, okay?” Mark looks down, but doesn’t meet Donghyuck’s concerned gaze. 

“I’ll go make you some lunch since I’m one hundred percent sure you haven’t had any yet,” Donghyuck teases as he takes the glasses from the floor and gingerly sets them in their case, and Mark breathes out a laugh in response, nodding his head.

“Thanks, Hyuckie.”

And damn it all if his heart doesn’t leap in his chest when Mark uses the childhood nickname again.

Donghyuck swallows hard, patting Mark on the knee before he leaves the room to go back downstairs with none of his concerns quelled. As much as he’s tempted to stay back and make sure that Mark can handle everything alright, it would just make the older mad because he absolutely hates being babied or treated like he can’t do things himself.

That’s the exact mindset that is both his greatest virtue as well as his biggest vice. He constantly presses himself to work harder, do better, but sometimes he goes too far because the brilliant Mark Lee can be so _ so _ stupid and doesn’t believe that he has limits. There have been times where Donghyuck can do nothing but cradle the absolutely fully capable Mark Lee in his arms as he breaks down in tears because of the enormous amount of pressure that rests on his shoulders.

It breaks his heart every time when Mark cries all of the tears out of his system before standing up with a shaky smile and implores Donghyuck not to tell anyone. Of course, he never does, but that doesn’t make him overly keen on it. 

Donghyuck trudges down the stairs, only glancing back once when he hears a door close and sees the light in the bathroom across the hallway from Mark’s bedroom on, and a few moments later the shower starts. He lets out a soft breath, his shoulders slumping as he makes it back to the kitchen. He picks up Mark’s swim bag and puts it on the empty stool by the counter, the other one occupied with a pile of textbooks that Donghyuck is positive are also Mark’s.

He opens all of the blinds around the first floor, letting the natural summer sunlight stream in through the windows instead of flipping on all of the switches inside before going back to the kitchen and starting an omelette for Mark, putting peppers and onions and extra cheddar cheese in it but completely skipping over the tomatoes and mushrooms because he hates them. 

Donghyuck feels a vibration from his pocket and he pulls out Mark’s phone to find a new text.

**Mom :) | 2:13PM  
** I’ll be home late tonight, sweetie  
We can go out for your birthday dinner tomorrow instead

He knows that Mark’s mom works at the hospital, works long hours, and is kind of a big deal, but other than that he doesn’t know much about her job. Mark doesn’t talk about it so Donghyuck doesn’t ask. It’s become a commonality between the two of them to not talk about their parents much because Mark’s father has never really been in the picture and Donghyuck’s own parents divorced when he was eight. 

Another buzz.

**Mom :) | 2:15PM  
** Mr. Lee next door is available if you need anything  
Have a happy birthday  
I’ll be home soon I promise

A pause. The typing bubble comes and goes for a moment before another message comes in at last.

**Mom :) | 2:17PM  
** I love you, Minhyung  
Don’t forget that

Donghyuck feels tears prick at the back of his eyes and he closes out of the text stream before setting the phone back down on the counter where he had found it. He knows that Mark and his mother have somewhat of a tough love relationship because she raised him all on her own as a working mother, and as much as she loves Mark dearly, she holds him to the highest of standards. He grimaces, blinking hard and turns back to the omelette on the stovetop just in time to hear footsteps on the staircase. He looks over momentarily to see Mark throwing on a shirt, but the neckline gets caught on his glasses and Donghyuck laughs at the sight.

“Haha, very funny,” Mark grumbles from under his shirt before wrangling it the rest of the way over his head with a struggle. “Smells great, Hyuck-ah.”

“It had better. I put all of my love and affection into this just for you,” he jokes, but the smile Mark flashes him in response doesn’t meet his eyes. “What’s going on with you, Mark? Seriously.”

Mark just shakes his head in response, hopping up on the side of the counter opposite the stovetop where the omelette is almost finished cooking. His shorts ride up on his thighs, revealing a series of bruises from his kneecaps all the way up, disappearing under the fabric.

“Mark!” Donghyuck gasps, stepping between his legs to get a better look at the injuries. He is lost for words, stuck between wanting to run his fingers across the skin and not touch him at all in fear of making it hurt more. “What are these?”

“The omelette is going to burn, Hyuck-ah,” Mark points out.

Donghyuck has to bite his lip to keep an undignified “fuck the omelette, you’re more important” from slipping out of his mouth. He spins around and takes the pan off of the stove, tipping the eggs onto a plate for Mark, barely remembering to turn off the burner before he turns back to give Mark the plate.

He should be more surprised that Mark already has a fork in his hand even though the silverware drawer is halfway across the kitchen, but he isn’t because being prepared to eat at all times is a skill that Mark has honed down to a science. It’s somewhat impressive, if Donghyuck is being honest.

But Donghyuck isn’t the one that needs to be honest here right now, it’s the boy with the fork in his hand who is preoccupied eating an omelette that his concerned best friend has just prepared. 

“Mark,” Donghyuck says carefully, resting his hand on Mark’s knee. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

Mark pauses and looks him in the eye for a moment before polishing off the rest of his omelette and setting the plate aside.

“I had an anxiety attack at swim practice this morning.” Mark holds up a hand to stop Donghyuck’s interjection before he can even open his mouth. “Everything was suddenly just too much when coach asked me if I could lead some freshmen in training and I think I blacked out because the next thing I knew, coach Suh had dragged me out of the pool and was performing CPR.”

Donghyuck’s fingers curl around Mark’s knees as he speaks. He hasn’t had an anxiety attack in years, since he learned to deal with his anxiety healthily and not let it build up to this point. He feels a pang of guilt because he has always done his best to be there for Mark and to help him manage his anxiety, but he’s been busy these past few weeks and has seen Mark maybe once or twice. 

“Coach Suh told me to go home, and I did, originally with the intention of getting up for work again, but I think it’s a bit late for that,” Mark finishes carefully, placing his hands over Donghyuck’s. “Everything is just happening so fast and I’m growing up and it _ sucks _ because coach says that there are some colleges coming to check me out at the next meet and my mom had an argument about me not wanting to go into medicine like her and then you weren’t there for so long and it all came crashing down and _ fuck it, Hyuckie, _ I missed you so much.”

Mark looks close to tears as he lets the words spill from his lips as fast as Donghyuck can process them. He takes a step closer to Mark and wraps his arms around his waist, sliding him forward on the counter until their chests are pulled flush together and Donghyuck’s head is tucked neatly in the crook of Mark’s neck. 

“I’m here now, Mark,” he murmurs into his collarbone, lips barely brushing the skin. “I’m always here for you.”

They stay there like that for a while, Donghyuck inhaling the peach scent of the same soap Mark has been using since he was ten because he’s scared to change it up now. Mark loops his arms around his shoulders and rests his forehead on Donghyuck’s shoulder, his damp hair leaving a wet spot on his t-shirt. They just hold onto each other, clutching onto their comfort with all of the strength that they have left.

It’s a long moment before either of them speak again, but eventually Donghyuck pulls away, cradling Mark’s face between his palms. Mark leans into the touch, closing his eyes and sighing.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Jeno? Yukhei, even?”

“I didn’t want to burden them,” Mark whispers and Donghyuck swears he can feel his heart shatter.

Mark, sweet, wonderful, brilliant, talented, caring, _ beautiful_, Mark Lee thinks he’s a burden and Donghyuck wants to punch all of Mark’s insecurities right in the face. 

But he can’t. 

So he does the next best thing.

And kisses him square on the mouth.

Which, looking back, might have been a bad move, but Mark melts right into Donghyuck’s touch and he can’t find within himself to regret it for a second. Not with the way Mark’s lips are so soft against his own, the way he scrambles for purchase on Donghyuck’s shoulders, the way he sighs in contentment before letting him pull away once more.

“Hey, Mark?” Donghyuck rests their foreheads together. “I’ve been in love with you since I was ten years old, and this definitely wasn’t how I was planning on telling you, but I have to let it out because this is genuine and real and I want you.”

“Sucks to suck,” Mark laughs, the puff ruffling Donghyuck’s hair slightly. “I’ve been in love with you since I was nine.”

“You have now won precisely one race between the two of us that isn’t in water, congrats.” Donghyuck opens his eyes to find Mark already looking at him. “But I’m _ so _ not kissing you again until you brush your teeth.”

Mark pouts with his entire body; his shoulders hunch and his entire expression seems to curve downwards, so Donghyuck takes pity on him and presses his lips to the corner of his mouth until he feels it curl upwards under his touch.

“We’re doing more of this right when I get back,” Mark bargains, slipping off the counter to stand in front of him, their noses touching. 

“After we talk, baby,” Donghyuck insists before stepping back and letting Mark scamper off up the stairs to his bathroom. 

He takes a second to catch his breath and wrap his head around exactly what just happened because there is so much to process between Mark’s admittance to an anxiety attack, their mutual confession, the kiss. He leans forward on the counter, bracing his upper body with his forearms in hopes that the cool surface will help ground him again.

He sucks in another deep breath and pulls out his phone to text Jeno.

**HALFSUN | 2:34PM  
** operation: birthday isnt necessary  
mark is,,, more or less okay

**NO JAM JENO | 2:35PM  
** thank god i was getting worried  
can u believe it? me getting worried over mark?  
it’s a miracle

**HALFSUN | 2:36PM  
** fuck off no jam  
go suck nana’s dick or smthn

**NO JAM JENO | 2:36PM  
** well don’t mind if i do  
try not to get too frisky with mark hyung yeah?  
we still need his ass in one piece for practice tomorrow

**HALFSUN | 2:37PM  
** i have really come to loathe how i dont have to say anything  
yet u know everything 

**NO JAM JENO | 2:38PM  
** lmao u used “loathe” over text why is that so funny  
but don’t worry u didn’t have to say anything  
bc mark is panic texting me from the bathroom  
i know ~everything~

**HALFSUN | 2:39PM  
**g o a w a y d e m o n

Donghyuck doesn’t get to know what Jeno says next because suddenly there’s a body wrapping around his back, a chin hooking over his shoulder.

“When were you going to tell me about Operation: Birthday?” Mark asks, his breath tickling Donghyuck’s ear. “I like the sound of it.”

“It was the original confession plan.” Donghyuck’s voice hitches as Mark scrapes his teeth over the shell of his ear. “It was supposed to involve the pool and a decorated cake and maybe some posters but—_fuck _ I can’t focus when you do that, Mark.”

“Maybe I don’t want you to focus,” Mark murmurs, and Donghyuck turns his head enough to smell the mint of Mark’s toothpaste. “Maybe I want you to lose control.”

“Nope, not yet,” Donghyuck chastises, but he can’t step away because there’s nowhere to go but straight to Mark. Not like he’s arguing or anything, though. “We need to talk about this.”

“Okay,” Mark relents, backing up enough for Donghyuck to turn around so they’re face to face again. “Be my boyfriend because you’re so gorgeous and talented and witty and my best friend and the one person who keeps me whole when I feel like falling apart and because you’re _ Lee fucking Donghyuck _ and I’ve been in love with you for an entire decade?”

“God, yes,” Donghyuck breathes out before he’s kissing Mark again, placing his hands on his waist and spinning them around until the small of Mark’s back is pressed up against the kitchen counter, pinning him there. 

Donghyuck doesn’t even have to ask before Mark is opening up beneath his lips; so pliant and so _ so _beautiful that it hurts. He lets his hands wander under the hem of Mark’s shirt, his thumbs dipping below the elastic waistband of his shorts to massage the tiniest of circles there on the soft skin of his hips, reveling in the feeling of Mark’s muscles jumping beneath his touch.

Their paradise isn’t long-lived, though, because there’s a crash from the front door and a moment later all of their friends come tumbling across the threshold, unceremoniously ending up in a pile on the rug. 

“Hey look! Mark’s alive!” Chenle cheers. Donghyuck grins as Mark’s cheeks turn pink and he drops his head on Donghyuck’s shoulder to hide his blush. 

“Ew what were you two _ doing?_” Jisung wrinkles his nose as he stands up, gesturing to Mark’s hips where Donghyuck’s hands still are just under the waistband of his shorts. Donghyuck just winks at Jisung before giving Mark a squeeze and retracting his hands.

Mark squeaks—a high, undignified noise that they mock for the rest of the evening—and whacks Donghyuck on the arm. 

“I told you I didn’t need Operation: Birthday anymore.” Donghyuck is smiling like an idiot, he’s sure, but Mark presses a careful kiss to his cheek and he doesn’t even care that it grows wider. They’re both standing there, side by side in the kitchen while their friends look on incredulously from the doorway. 

“That took you about four years longer than I had hoped,” Jaemin starts as he is helped up by Jeno. “But about four years shorter than I had my money on.”

“Oh, _ fuck you _ Nana!” Donghyuck whined. “You and Jeno took long enough to get together!”

“Two years and ten years are quite a bit different,” Jeno reminds him with a smirk, and sets a box on the kitchen counter. “The cake that we ordered. The operation may be off but I am not giving up the chance to eat this whole thing whether you guys join me or not.”

The thought of Jeno eating the whole cake spurs Donghyuck into action. He lunges across the counter and tugs the box across so it’s out of Jeno’s reach. Mark opens the box and sticks his pinky finger in the icing and brings it to his mouth to lick it clean.

“Thanks for the cake, Jeno.” Mark smiles, victorious. “Nice message you got there, Hyuck-ah.”

Donghyuck doesn’t even have to look down at the cake to know that it says “pls be my boyfie mark-hyung” because he is the one who put on that atrociously bright red lettering. He just tugs Mark in for another kiss, barely getting to taste the sweet sugar on his tongue before the protests of the others—mostly in some variation of “get a room”—get too loud.

“Happy birthday, Mark,” Donghyuck says, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together.

“Thank you, Hyuckie.” Mark swings their hands lightly between them, a smile tipping at the edge of his lips. “For everything today.”

“_Okay!_” Jaemin interrupts, clapping his hands. “Let everyone else get some cake before you two _ defile it _ or something, and the last one to the living room has to play as Toadette in Mario Kart!”

It’s chaos from there on out, but as Donghyuck looks between Mark and their friends, he knows there isn’t a single other place he would rather be.

After a long afternoon and evening of arguing over all sorts of things from who gets Bowser in Mario Kart—it’s Chenle because he took it while everyone else was yelling—to who cooks dinner—which turns out to be both Jaemin and Donghyuck together because no one else in their friend group should ever be trusted in the kitchen—they finally settle down.

Like they did as kids, they spread out blankets and pillows all across the floor and couches in Mark’s living room, all tangled up in a big pile so they’re close to one another. Donghyuck is resting somewhere in the middle with Mark laying almost directly on top of him, and Renjun's legs on top of Mark’s. That’s the limit of limbs that he can distinguish other than Jeno’s arms some distance away because he’s on his phone still.

Donghyuck feels his own vibrate in his back pocket, and it’s a master puzzle to try and figure out how to extract it without waking anyone up because he’s reasonably sure that it’s just Jeno and him who are still conscious at this point.

**NO JAM JENO | 11:27PM  
** i’m proud of you bud  
really

Donghyuck looks across the pile of their friends and shoots Jeno a grin and a thumbs-up without jostling the lightly snoozing Mark on his chest too much.

There’s still so much he wants to say to Mark, to do with him, but it’s been one day out of the thousands that they will spend together. He snuggles himself closer to Mark, tightening his arms around his body just a bit more to make sure that he’s really real, that he’s really there, that he’s really _ his. _

“Happy birthday again, Mark,” Donghyuck murmurs into his hair before pressing one last soft kiss there. 

“I love you, Hyuck-ah,” Mark nuzzles into his neck, his words coming out slurred since he’s already half asleep. “My Hyuckie.”

“I love you too, Minhyung.” And with that, they drift off together, wrapped up in each other’s limbs and love.

They’re both home at last. 

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote about 90% of this in less than five hours yesterday (i came up with the concept on a whim at 2pm and then just Went Off) and i'm surprised that it turned out even minorly decent,,, god bless spellcheck amirite?
> 
> also a small psa for those of you who follow my fics!! boss is getting an update (or two hehe) on august 8th bc it marks a year since i posted boss, which was my first fic ever so you can look forward to that!!
> 
> come yell at me on my socials about anything <3  
[twitter](https://twitter.com/baridalive)  
[curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/baridalive)  
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